f the population on the part of
women weaned from the lap of luxury, and a consequent sacrifice of
almost every form of creature comfort, barring a tooth-brush, a small
piano, a few books, and an etching or two, will be likely to create a
sterner and sterner disrelish for the ice-cream and mushrooms vista of
life at the end of which stands a husband with a newly furnished house
and an ample income. My wife is ready to admit that purely from the
point of view of common sense she would have preferred to have the
child do almost anything peculiar rather than engage in her present
mummery, because some people will consider her crazy; but, on the other
hand, she maintains that the chances of losing her altogether are much
less serious than if she had become a Toynbee Haller, for instance.
"Mind you," said Josephine, "however much I might have fumed, I should
really have been very, very proud if she had gone in for that. I can
imagine, if you once got used to the idea, feeling quite as happy over
it as if one's son had become a clergyman, which of course," she added,
meditatively, "is a peculiar kind of happiness not just like any other.
But it would have meant separation forever, to all intents and
purposes, for I am too old to change my interests now, however much I
may disapprove of them in theory, and though I should very likely go in
for something of the same kind in case I were to begin life over again.
But I don't feel as though this Christian Science were more than a
temporary craze; and being just the ordinary every-day woman I am, I
cannot help welcoming the possibility that Winona in course of time
will come to her senses. It may be selfish of me, but I can't help it."

Now, I do not regard the matter from quite such a personal point of
view as Josephine, though I agree with her that I should not have
picked out Christian Science as the most desirable loop-hole of escape
from the trammels of convention. To be sure, as Josephine says, it is
her loss rather than mine, for a father is much less completely
estranged from a daughter who is peculiar than is a mother, in that the
bond of clothes and parties and all the hitherto traditional tastes of
woman does not exist between a father and daughter. Hence it is
probably much easier for me to look at the matter philosophically than
it is for Josephine. Accordingly, though I laugh in my sleeve at the
solemn pretensions of my dear deluded daughter, and am more or less